Coast to Coast: My Crewing insights into Race Across America

I've agreed to be Crew Chief for the 4-man Ohio Cycleworks Charities team in the 2014 Race Across America.

I've had plenty of 'what the hell did I agree to?' moments about this, but this past weekend we had the entire team and crew together for a practice run within the Cuyahoga Valley. It let me visualize the many moving parts that need to come together for the success of this race, and I'm a lot more confident now about what we need to do.

I won't be posting anything during the race, but I will be tweeting my Crew Chief experiences through Twitter. I invite anyone who is interested in the Crew perspective of this race to sign on to @RAAMCrewView to get the latest feed. You will need to have a Twitter account, but it's relatively painless.

The Twitter feed will be strictly Crew perspective. It won't be about stats, or training miles, or fundraising for their cause (although I am asking for donations through www.ohiocycleworkscharities.com. The guys are raising money for Akron Children's Hospital).

And I won't be tweeting the blow-by-blow about the race, either. You can find all of that info at the official RAAM site once the race begins (www.raceacrossamerica.org).

The team and crew will be flying out to California on June 11th. The race begins at noon PST from Oceanside, CA on June 14th, and we end in Annapolis, MD. The goal is to finish in under 6 days 18 hours (the time it took these same riders to complete the race as an 8-man team).

Team: Brian Ray, Brian Zupancic, Matt Geis, Shawn Aker
Crew: Pam Semanik (Crew Chief), Jill Marks, Angie Ridgel, Larry Smith, Glenn Peterson, Erica Ray, Malinda Geis, David Nemer, and Dave Drabison